Fish are eviscerated and cut into fillets prior to cooking. The filleting process removes most of the bones. Unfortunately pin bones remain in many fish fillets following the filleting process. Many individuals do not like to remove bones from cooked fish and refuse to eat fish that has or may have bones. Commercial fish processors have large expensive machines for removing pin bones. Such machines are not available for use by sport fishermen that prepare fish they catch for cooking and to be eaten by friends and by themselves.
Individual fisherman generally eviscerate and fillet fish prior to cooking. Some fisherman leave the pin bones in the fillets and remove the pin bones while eating cooked fish. Others remove the pin bones prior to cooking. There are two common procedures for removing the pin bones from uncooked fish fillets. Needle nose pliers can be used to pull each pin bone from the fillet. This is a tedious and time consuming task and a few pin bones are generally missed. A sharp knife with one blade can be used to cut the pin bones from fillets. Cutting the pin bones out requires a first cut to one side of a row of pin bones. The first cut is generally easy because the fillet holds the pin bones in a relatively straight line. The second cut is generally more difficult because the pin bones are supported on one side only. The second cut is therefore a little further from the pin bones than the first cut. Cutting the fillets with a regular knife, to remove pin bones, removes a substantial portion of the eatable tissue and separates the fillet into at least two separate parts. The eatable tissue removed with the pin bones is lost.